24/7 Media partners with Microsoft Advertising

Marketing technology provider 24/7 Media, a subsidiary of holding company WPP, will partner with Microsoft Advertising, said Ari Bluman, president of 24/7 Media division Real Media Group. Under the agreement, Microsoft's and WPP's respective advertisers will be able to purchase ad space offered by either company.

“The partnership with Microsoft has been a long time in the works,” Bluman said. “Microsoft is one of WPP's largest partners and we've been working with them since our existence. Realistically [the partnership] was an evolution." The agreement will give WPP clients that use the company's ad serving technology Open AdStream access to Microsoft Advertising Exchange (MAX), Bluman added.

Ultimately, the 1,200 licensees using Open AdStream will be able to connect with the thousands of Microsoft partners “looking for audiences and premium inventory,” Bluman said. “Basically what this provides for licensees of Open AdStream is a new source of advertising demand, and on the flipside gives advertisers direct access to inventory from premium publishers.”

Bluman characterized this development as “game changing” in that Open AdStream clients with “inventory they want monetized can flip the switch and allow that to happen using technology hooking directly into MAX.”

Additionally, both companies are working to eliminate inconsistencies in the performance metrics of individual ads by integrating 24/7 Media's platform — used by WPP, with Microsoft's Atlas ad server — which according to a release is “a preferred ad server of WPP.”